Story is that she is 21 and a full time model, doing everything from print (she was in Maxim) to runway fashion. She lives in Vegas and is visiting my area and contacted me on Model Mayhem to update her portfolio since she recently changed from blonde to brunette. She generally only does paid gigs and we did trade. I was pretty excited about the opportunity and she was fantastic to work with

She is very tall with 4" heels (over 6') and got a lot of attention! I have a growing set of processed pics on my smugmug site if you want to see more of her.

I thike the these shots for the most part, but the skin has been over done.
There is no texture left and that makes it look just like blured skin.
I would love to see some of these with the skin PP toned down a bit.

Wow great work...and what a beautiful subject ;-) So, being an aspiring photographer...I have many questions! Would you give me pointers as to how you get such sharp photos that the subject pops out like that? I ended up ordering a D300 along with a new lens out of boredom in Iraq...now I'm in full learning mode! I have a great kit, I just need to build on my talent and knowledge base!

Wow great work...and what a beautiful subject ;-) So, being an aspiring photographer...I have many questions! Would you give me pointers as to how you get such sharp photos that the subject pops out like that? I ended up ordering a D300 along with a new lens out of boredom in Iraq...now I'm in full learning mode! I have a great kit, I just need to build on my talent and knowledge base!

Cheers,
Majdi

Click to expand...

Well, that is a loaded question Good composition, lighting and exposure are the most important items I think. I've had to really work at posing my subjects, which I have gotten much better at. This lovely lady didn't need much direction since it is her job. Then, I would say post processing techniques can help really pull out the subject (but Photoshop will not fix a crappy picture).

It has all been trial and error for me. I shoot, then look at the pics and figure out what is missing from ine that I like in those I admire, then shoot again. I've only been shooting people since last March, so I still learn more with each session.

LOL...well, at least it's a healthy addiction. Speaking of an addiction...

I'm reading "Mastering the D300" for the second time, and have two books by Bryan Peterson (Understanding Exposure/Understanding Shutter Speed) up next. If that's not bad enough, I'm thinking of buying "Photography" (9th ed) by Barbara London, et al... Meanwhile, I'm always trolling in this forum and Nikonian! Since I'm in Iraq, I have plenty of down time btwn our operations to learn. Having to learn this on my own is making me regret not enrolling in a certification course at USF when I was in Tampa. Maybe one day this Marine will be brave enough to post his web gallery!

One thing I noticed for critique, is that a couple of the poses make her look heavier than the others. I'm not a fan of the supper skinny supermodel look and the whole fall out from that...but it's usually considered better if you make the models look smaller rather than bigger. The first 4 look great but in #5 & #6, she looks a lot bigger than in the others. Part of its is the angle you are shooting at and part of it is that her bare shoulder/arm is so prominent in the image.